1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a car seat provided with a walk-in system.
2. Prior Art
Some of two-door cars have a walk-in system to make it easy for persons to get in onto the rear seats and the walk-in system serves to unlock a locking mechanism of a seat slide means which slidably supports a seat cushion to a vehicle floor and cause it to automatically slide forward when the seat-back of one of the front seats is collapsed forward. Each of the front seats in these cars usually have a reclining means to swing the seat-back backward in relation to the seat cushion.
When the reclining means is of the type of its being steplessly adjusted or keeping its gears engaged with each other at all times, the seat-back cannot be usually collapsed forward onto the seat cushion. In order to enable the seat-back to be collapsed onto the seat cushion in this case, the front end of the base for the reclining means is rotatably attached to one side of the seat cushion through a shaft. The seat-back is thus collapsed forward, swinging around the shaft. When the reclining means is of the type of its being adjusted step by step, same arrangement is sometimes employed because space large enough to make it easy for persons to get in onto the rear seats can be provided behind the front seat when the seat-back of one of the front seats is collapsed forward.
FIG. 1 shows the conventional car seat provided with the walk-in system which has the above-described arrangement. A seat cushion 1 is supported, slidably forward and backward, on a car floor through a seat slide means 2. The lower end of a seat-back 3 is attached, swingably forward and backward, to the back end of the seat cushion 1 through a reclining means 4. An arm 5 of the reclining means 4 is fixed to one side of the seat-back 3 and a base 6 is swingably attached to one side of the seat cushion 1 by means of a shaft 7. A recess 9 is provided at the lower side of the base 6 so that a rod-like striker 8 projecting laterally from the side of the seat cushion 1 is engaged with the recess 9 and a latch 10 to hold striker 8 in cooperation with the recess 9 is swingably attached to the base 6. The latch 10 is energized toward the striker 8 by means of a spring (not shown) and is connected to a knob 12 attached on the side of the seat-back 3 through a wire 13. A wire holder member 14 is fixed to the shaft 7 at the front end of the base 6 and one end of a wire 15 is connected to the lower end of the wire holder member 14 while the other end thereof to a locking mechanism 2a of the seat slide means 2. The above-mentioned parts cooperate with one another to form a walk-in system 16.
Seat slide and reclining means 2 and 4 can be used independently of each other to adjust the seat to fit a person who sits on the seat. When the walk-in system 16 is to be made operative, knob 12 on the side of the seat-back 3 is operated to pull the latch 10 and when the latch 10 is released from the striker 8, the seat-back 3 is collapsed forward around the shaft 7. The seatback 3 is thus swung together with the locked reclining means 4 around the shaft 7 at the front end of the base 6 and the wire 15 is pulled by the wire holder member 14, to unlock the locking mechanism 2a of the seat slide means 2, so that the seat cushion 1 can be forwarded to its most frontal position by means of a spring (not shown). When the seat-back 3 is swung backward after person(s) gets in onto the rear seats, the seat cushion 1 slides backward at the same time, the latch 10 is returned to hold the striker 8 in cooperation with the recess 9 of the base 6, and the wire 15 is pulled back to lock locking mechanism 2a of the seat slide means 2.
In the case of the car seat provided with the above-described walk-in system 16, the reclining means 4 can be independently adjusted. The angle of the wire holder member 14 swung in a case where the seatback 3 is moved from its normal position P to its forward collapsed position Q is different from that in another case where the seat-back 3 is moved from its backward collapsed position R, which is swung more backward than the normal position P to its forward collapsed position Q. The distance of the wire 15 pulled is thus made different in these both cases. The seat of this kind is designed to unlock the locking mechanism 2a the seat slide means 2 when the wire 15 is backward while collapsing the seat-back 3 forward from its normal position P. When the seatback 3 is moved from its backward collapsed position R to its forward collapsed position Q, the distance of the wire 15 pulled is made longer as compared with the case where the seat-back 3 is moved from its normal position P to its forward collapsed position Q. When this movement of the seat-back 3 from its backward swung position R to its forward collapsed position Q is forcedly carried out, it may happen that the wire 15 would become undurable against the applied force and that related parts would be broken by the force applied in the worst case.